Salt and light.

Jesus talks about being salt and light.

Salt seasons. It preserves. It melts ice. It helps make homemade ice cream. It corrodes paint. It makes water undrinkable. It makes the same water support life. It is simple. It is natural. It is found in lots of locations, from deep underground to deep in your veins.

Light illuminates. When it is in the distance, like a lighthouse, it helps you find were you are. When it is in your hand, like a lantern, it helps you see your path. When it is in your eyes, like a floodlight, it is blinding. When you are trying to hide, it is painfully revealing. In a fireplace, it is delightful. In the attic, it is devastating.

Jesus talks about being salt and being light, and if you google salt and light, you get thousands of sermons on this text.

He talks about being the salt of the earth and then talks about salt losing its flavor.

I don’t understand. I mean, I understand the metaphor – if salt ever were to lose its saltiness, it would be worthless. But I don’t know if it ever could happen. Lots of preachers explain it.

But I think that if I heard Jesus talk about this thing that seems to makes no sense, I’d get the point.

He talks about the pointlessness of a light that is under a basket.

I do understand that. A basket over a lamp hides it. Until, of course, the basket catches on fire and burns up everything around.

If I heard someone use that metaphor, I’d understand it.

With these two images of absurdities of salt and light, Jesus says, “Be what you are made to be, do what you are made to do.”

In other words, be followers.